Feb. 3, 1908.J Agricultural Gazette of N.S.W. 151 



ClIAI'TER III. 



The Houses and Runs. 



It is (luite simple to hear, read, and tallv about thousands of ducks and 

 fowls, but seeing them is a different matter, and when nearly two thou- 

 sand tiny things of under 1 week old are brought under notice, one 

 wonders how they are all accommodated. Although there are foster- 

 mothers, they are not of the wooden sort, but Muscovy ducks, which are 

 usually given from eighteen to twenty-tive to brood. Figure 2 illustrates 

 this svsteni of rearin"'. 



Fig. 7.— Two rows of hatching boxes, with 500 in the distance. 



To accommodate the thousands mentioned, there is an extensive nursery 

 ground (Fig. 1), located under an avenue of trees, with moderate-sized 

 houses, o^jen fronts, and grass runs. The houses are not large, there 

 being no necessity for this, as the Ijaljy ducklings live the greater portion 

 of their time in the open air on the grassed shady runs; only visiting the 

 straw-bedded houses at night, when they are shut up with a wire-fronted 

 door, to prevent them in case of rain or storm running out in the wet, 

 which is most devastating to ducklings of tender age. 



Three or four mother ducks occupy each of these houses and runs, 

 for, unlike hens, tliey live most agreeably, not knowing or caring whether 

 a duckling is one of their own l)rood or not, and bestowing the same 

 motherly care to a hundred as readily as to a single protege. 



